In a major move, the Ministry of Finance on Saturday clarified that corporate assessees need not separately obtain Permanent Account Number (PAN) under section 139 of Income Tax Act. The Centre in a notification stated that in case of a company, an application for incorporation, allotment of Permanent Account Number (PAN) and allotment of Tax Deduction and Collection Account Number (TAN) may be made through a Common Application Form submitted to the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA).

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In these cases, the Certificate of Incorporation (COI) issued by MCA contains a mention of both PAN and TAN.

It needs to be noted that, the amended Finance Act, 2018 for section 139A of the Income-tax Act, 1961  removed the requirement of issuing PAN in the form of a laminated card.

Hence, it is clarified that PAN and TAN mentioned in the COI issued by MCA shall also be treated as sufficient proof of PAN and TAN for the said company assessees.

PAN is an alphanumeric number consisting of 10 digits is provided by the IT department of India in the form of a laminated card. 

The legal authority for allotment and use of the new series of PAN is derived from Section 139A of the Income-tax Act, 1961. This section lays down the framework for PAN, e.g, who is required to apply for PAN, who else can apply for PAN, who will allot PAN, transactions where PAN is required to be quoted, use of PAN in TDS certificates and TDS returns, that one person can have only one PAN and the manner of applying for PAN. A penalty of Rs 10,000/- is imposeable u/s 272B for failure to comply with the provisions of section 139A.

Earlier the section 139A of highlighted that, PAN is a must for all assesses for his own income or other income exceeding Rs 5 lakhs. Companies are also required to obtain PAN as well as TAN.